The present invention relates to satellite communications in general and, in particular, to resource allocation in a multi-beam satellite communications network.
Satellite communications systems often have a limited amount of available resources to be allocated to terminals. In many multi-beam system designs, a set amount of such resources is allocated to each beam. However, the resource needs for the terminals within each beam and, consequently, the beams themselves, may change over time. Moreover, different terminals may have different priority levels, have varying service level agreements, and carry different types of traffic.
It may, therefore, be desirable to utilize a system design in which bandwidth is allocated among beams, within beams, and to terminals dynamically, in response to bandwidth requests and various quality of service metrics.